Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that young people can access the countryside.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are currently providing £4.45 million funding to deliver a second phase of Generation Green, to help more disadvantaged children and young people experience the benefits of the great outdoors. This builds on the legacy of the successful first phase of the Generation Green programme. Although this funding will end at the end of March 2025, we will continue to seek opportunities to help young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, access the countryside.

The DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Unit and the Defra Access to Nature teams are working collaboratively to align policy development on access to nature and opportunities for children and young people to engage with nature, alongside enhancing education and skills. Together we want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to experience and learn about nature, in order to behave responsively, protect and enhance it, whilst also supporting building important skills.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 March 2025 to Question 39625 on General Practitioners: Employers' Contributions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed increase to employers' National Insurance contributions on the level of employment in general practices.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise was implemented in April 2025.

General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.

We are investing an additional £889 million through the GP Contract to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 March 2025 to Question 39625 on General Practitioners: Employers' Contributions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed increase to employers' National Insurance contributions on the number of general practices.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We have made necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise was implemented in April 2025.

General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.

We are investing an additional £889 million through the GP Contract to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to encourage schools to celebrate (a) Easter and (b) other Christian holidays.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Easter and other Christian holidays provide good opportunities for schools to celebrate the traditions of our country, and the department supports schools taking those opportunities with their pupils.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to protect the green belt in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is committed to preserving Green Belts which have served England's towns and cities well over many decades, not least in terms of checking the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas and preventing neighbouring towns merging into one another.

The government’s new approach to the Green Belt, including prioritising the release of lower quality grey belt land and introducing ‘golden rules’ to ensure development benefits communities and nature, is set out in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published on 12 December.

On 27 February, Planning Practice Guidance was published to assist local authorities and other decision-makers, and to support a consistent approach to determining whether land is grey belt. It can be found on gov.uk here. This new guidance will support authorities in producing Local Plans, while also making sure that planning applications and development on suitable grey belt land can proceed in the short-term in areas without an up-to-date plan.

The government has also provided 133 local planning authorities with £70,000 of pump priming funding each to contribute towards the costs of carrying out Green Belt reviews in their areas.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of infrastructure developments on agricultural land in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government does not comment on individual projects which have yet to be consented via the independent planning process.

The Government has launched a consultation on land use in England which will inform the publication of the Land Use Framework this year. The framework will set out how the Government will protect land with the greatest long-term potential for food production, while delivering on the need for new infrastructure which will bring forward green growth, good jobs and investment across the country.

The Land Use Framework and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan are being designed alongside each other to work cohesively together and with other sectoral plans.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her plans are for projects that received funding through the Levelling Up Fund in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Levelling Up Fund is fully committed, with £4.8 billion going to 271 projects across the UK. In Lancashire this includes 10 projects worth £260 million.

We are supporting Local Authorities to help deliver the benefits of this investment to communities across the UK.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support first time buyers in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The affordability challenges facing prospective first-time buyers mean that too many people are now locked out of homeownership. This government is determined to change that, ensuring that young families and hardworking renters can buy a home of their own.

Boosting the supply of homes of all tenures must be at the heart of any strategy to improve housing affordability which is why the government’s Plan for Change includes a hugely ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England in this Parliament.

In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, we are committed to introducing a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme, to support first-time buyers, including those in Fylde and Lancashire, who struggle to save for a large deposit, with lower mortgage costs.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ordering Typhoon jets from UK-based manufacturers.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 4 March 2025 to the hon. Member for Fylde (Andrew Snowden) to Question 34040.